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#1651 Friday December 19, 2003 ~ Editor: Gloria  

THERE IS NOTHING BEAUTIFUL IN LIFE EXCEPT LIFE.
-- Wallace Stevens

  EVERYTHING IS WAITING FOR YOU
(After Derek Mahon)  

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone.  As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions.  To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings.  Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice.  You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.  

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation.  The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last.  All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves.  Everything is waiting for you.  

~ David Whyte ~  

(Everything is Waiting for You)      

  Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Everything_is_Waiting.html

Emanations   There is a critical mass of spiritual awareness which, when we reach
it, will spread into the world like a chain reaction, altering human
consciousness like never before.

Unfortunately, no one knows what the number actually is, whether it
is an obscure mystical fraction, or perhaps a simple majority. But
there is no doubt that spirituality is contagious, that love can
spread like a blossoming springtime.

Lyell Watson told the story of the Hundredth Monkey in his book
Lifetide. It was an experiment in the 50's that actually never
happened. But the story is told again and again. The story is that
after one hundred monkeys on an island learned to wash the dirt off
of potatoes that the monkeys on other islands spontaneously began
washing their potatoes too, with no physical contact with any of the
original hundred monkeys.

As with many stories, the story is spiritually true, but not actually
physically true.

We keep searching for scientific information to support spiritual
notions. Some of the stories and theories are exaggerated and
distorted. Some people seem to need the miraculous and will go to any
lengths to invent it if it's not readily available.

It really is a shame to have to go so far to find the miraculous when
it is a continuum right before our very eyes. Existence itself is a
miracle. How we could even be is incomprehensible. Then we look at
life growing and blooming, flying, singing all around us, the beauty
and energy of a child, nature, the wind, the sun, the rain.

There is certainly a critical mass within each of us that tips us
individually in the direction of the divine. Hermes said that one ray
of the light of Atum was sufficient to lift the spirit of the true
seeker. One smile of a granddaughter.

I let go of trying to save the entire human race. I am the critical
mass for universal enlightenment.


Emanations
Copyright © 2003  by John MacEnulty
12/19/2003, St. Louis, MO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eman8tions/  

  Morning Zen  

He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.
-- Ali ibn-Abi-Talib (602 AD - 661 AD)  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/morningzen/  

Lisbeth ~ SufiMystic    

*   PROMISES  

Visions better than drugs haven't come.
Intelligence exceeding genius hasn't come.
Titanic strength hasn't come.
Beauty to attract lovers hasn't come.
Visitations from gods haven't come.
Freedom from weariness hasn't come.
An end to vexing annoyances hasn't come.
Great wealth hasn't come.
Fame hasn't come.
Unlimited understanding of others hasn't come.
Supernatural powers haven't come.
The skill to spontaneously heal hasn't come.
The gift of prophesy hasn't come.

None of these things have come,
Yet I would not forsake this spiritual path.



All sorts of things are promised to you as a seeker of
spirituality. Yet when these things don't come, does that
mean that you should forsake your path? Spirituality is not
a transaction with the universe. It is an endeavor that we
take up because it is our ultimate mode of being. If we get
nothing for it, we should not be bothered. Who cares about
powers? They only lead to temptation. Those who follow Tao
should care only for inner understanding.



promises
365 Tao
Deng Ming-Dao
Daily Meditations

this meditation and larger version of the artwork is
archived at
http://www.duckdaotsu.org/promises12.html  

*Title: Two Scholars Walking
Artist: Chang Dao Shin

  We are all caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality...   Martin Luther King, Jr.  

Tiep Hien - The Order of Interbeing

One meaning of the word tiep is "being in touch with." What are we to be in touch with? The answer is reality, the reality of the world and the reality of the mind.

To be in touch with the mind means to be aware of the processes of our inner life-feelings, perceptions, mental formations-and also to rediscover our true mind, which is the wellspring of understanding and compassion. . . To be in touch with the reality of the world means to be in touch with everything that is around us in the animal, vegetable, and mineral realms.

If we want to be in touch, we have to get out of our shell and look clearly and deeply at the wonders of life-the snowflakes, the moonlight, the songs of the birds, the beautiful flowers-and also the suffering-hunger, disease, torture, and oppression. Overflowing with understanding and compassion, we can appreciate the wonders of life, and at the same time, act with the firm resolve to alleviate the suffering.

One meaning of the word hien is to realize or realization. Hien means not to dwell or be caught in the world of doctrines and ideas, but to bring and express our insights into real life. First of all, realization means transforming ourselves. If we wish to share calmness and serenity, we should first realize these qualities within ourselves. Working to help people who are hungry or sick means to be peaceful and loving during that work. Hien means making it real here and now.

http://www.iamhome.org/oi.html#th

Mace Mealer ~ Dzogchen  

Look it up,
Look it down,
examine it from all sides round.
Use that magic frontal lobe,
and shake it like a snowy globe.
It's rarely what you know and think,
so take it with a smile and wink.
And if you wonder if you're lost
you're where the Fates have had you tossed.
Asking questions is just fine,
but how can answers be in time?
When can one become the two
before or after it is due?
When can two become the one
before or after they are done?  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dzogchen/  

"in the experience of yogins who do not perceive things
dualistically, the fact that things manifest without truly existing
is so amazing, they burst out in laughter"
--Longchenpa. (from The Choying Dzod)
 

  SkyDancer ~ Dzogchen  

Just discovered this Dutch web site
with many, many Buddhist films
available for download. [I just discovered this and have not
actually downloaded anything yet.]

A film by the French monk and internationally renowned photographer Matthieu Ricard, author of the book 'The Monk and the Philosopher'. The film is about his Tibetan teacher, H.H. Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He was the Dzogchen teacher of the Dalai Lama and the teacher of many of the present generation of Tibetan teachers; both literally and figuratively a giant. Matthieu Ricard has always served as his secretary, and is also the official translator of HH the Dalai Lama. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche visited the Western world several times and has many Western students. Those who have met him, acknowledge him as a fully realized person. The film contains rare and authentic footage from the fifties and the sixties of Buddhist dances and rituals.

  Editors note: This film is like being transported into Tibetan culture, just beautiful. It plays on RealOne, with a choice of slow or fast connection. Go into archive section and scroll almost to the bottom, going to the date given. The films are narrated or spoken in English with Dutch subtitles. ( I also watched the one about Philip Glass for 1 - 9 - 2001, which has his music plus some of Tibetan monks blowing those long horns.) The films average a half hour, so go when you have the time, but just looking at the list of titles, this site is a terrific resource. -Gloria

H.H. Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche  

image from http://www.dzogchen.org/library/bios/dilgo.htm

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